fanklok:I can't wait for the Protoss vid I want to see the early game massing capabilities in SC2 and when this comes out and I go and buy it I definitely want my first online game to be a 2v2 with me, mister Tito, mister Funk and the guy that made this vid, doubt it'll happen but I can dream can't I?

FOR ADUN!!!!

Mass Zealots are fun. It takes a bit to get them out, but if you can do it, it wrecks things. Another good strat from before they nerfed the hell out of it was Dark Templar rushing. Tech to DTs and a Robotics facility (and research Warp Gates along the way). Crank out a Warp Prism, fly it over near their base and turn it into pylon mode. Then port your Dark Templars onto it and laugh as their workers are annihilated.

Not sure how viable it is since they doubled the research time for Warp Gates, but it was a blast before that.

Honestly? Not really. Zerglings are TERRIBLE now. If you have a zergling vs. a worker unit the working unit will win hands down. Furthermore, zergs now have roaches - a unit in between lings and hydras. Roaches are broken, they can burrow and recover all health in seconds.

The current consensus seems to be that zerg is OP and I believe it. Just have a roach/hydralisk swarm and you're untouchable.

Any race can 'rush', rushing just refers to a specific type a build order that forgoes making workers, like you normally would, in order to get units out sooner.

Most maps now have narrow ramps up to your starting base, so it's common to block that with buildings or units. Terrans, for instance, now have Supply Depots that can raise and lower so you usually see a Terran player block off his base with a Barracks and two Supply Depots, well before someone could get off a decent rush.

Really the best defense against rushes is simply to scout early and to be prepared for them. Rushes only work because someone is building/teching to quickly and isn't ready to fend off units. If you can beat back a rush then you can lean on a handicapped opponent for the rest of the game because his economy will be lagging way behind yours.

It is. But any decent player will throw up a good defense early in the game rip your zergling rush to shreds. I'm in the beta and first thing I do is throw up a forge followed by 2-3 cannons and rape any zerg rush that comes at me.

Wiezzen:It is. But any decent player will throw up a good defense early in the game rip your zergling rush to shreds. I'm in the beta and first thing I do is throw up a forge followed by 2-3 cannons and rape any zerg rush that comes at me.

A good ling rush will hit you long before you can get more than 1 cannon up. It typically hits with 6-8 lings ~90 seconds into the game.

It's really not that hard to counter though. Build 2 Gateways and have them constantly spitting out Zealots and you'll have at least 4 of them by the time the rush hits, and 4 zealots is more than enough for the majority of ling rushes.

Wiezzen:It is. But any decent player will throw up a good defense early in the game rip your zergling rush to shreds. I'm in the beta and first thing I do is throw up a forge followed by 2-3 cannons and rape any zerg rush that comes at me.

A good ling rush will hit you long before you can get more than 1 cannon up. It typically hits with 6-8 lings ~90 seconds into the game.

It's really not that hard to counter though. Build 2 Gateways and have them constantly spitting out Zealots and you'll have at least 4 of them by the time the rush hits, and 4 zealots is more than enough for the majority of ling rushes.

EDIT: Fixed some of the building times

It takes exactly 35 seconds to build the Forge and 40 seconds to build a Photon Cannon adding up to a mere 75 seconds of building time. The Zerg Spawning Pool requires 65 seconds of builing time and each pair of Zerglings require a 24 second building time, in total you're looking at a 79 second building time for a typical 6-Zergling rush leaving the Protoss player with a 4-second lead on you in building time.

Until changes are made in another patch the popular 6-Zergling rush will always be raped by cannons if the Protoss player makes building cannons their first priority.

It takes exactly 35 seconds to build the Forge and 40 seconds to build a Photon Cannon adding up to a mere 75 seconds of building time. The Zerg Spawning Pool requires 65 seconds of builing time and each pair of Zerglings require a 24 second building time, in total you're looking at a 79 second building time for a typical 6-Zergling rush leaving the Protoss player with a 4-second lead on you in building time.

Until changes are made in another patch the popular 6-Zergling rush will always be raped by cannons if the Protoss player makes building cannons their first priority.

The problem is more the money for the cannons instead of the timing. If you build only cannons from the get go, yea you'll have 3 or so when the ling rush hits.

The problem with that is you're just as set back after the rush as they are, if not moreso. You're a solid 65 seconds behind with your Gateway, and then 33 seconds per Zealot (with proper use of Chrono Boost, probably down ~25 seconds on average). If they used that time at all intelligently, they'll have a sizable force ready by the time you move out the door. They may not be able to take out your base right away, but you're really behind for the later game.

Usually much better to throw up 2 gateways and zealots instead of cannons.

It takes exactly 35 seconds to build the Forge and 40 seconds to build a Photon Cannon adding up to a mere 75 seconds of building time. The Zerg Spawning Pool requires 65 seconds of builing time and each pair of Zerglings require a 24 second building time, in total you're looking at a 79 second building time for a typical 6-Zergling rush leaving the Protoss player with a 4-second lead on you in building time.

Until changes are made in another patch the popular 6-Zergling rush will always be raped by cannons if the Protoss player makes building cannons their first priority.

The problem is more the money for the cannons instead of the timing. If you build only cannons from the get go, yea you'll have 3 or so when the ling rush hits.

The problem with that is you're just as set back after the rush as they are, if not moreso. You're a solid 65 seconds behind with your Gateway, and then 33 seconds per Zealot (with proper use of Chrono Boost, probably down ~25 seconds on average). If they used that time at all intelligently, they'll have a sizable force ready by the time you move out the door. They may not be able to take out your base right away, but you're really behind for the later game.

Usually much better to throw up 2 gateways and zealots instead of cannons.

It doesn't really put you behind that much. Idealy, the 450 minerals you put into the Photon Cannons will hardly put you behind. I see how a stratagy like this could be a blow to Terran or Zerg, but the 20 second 50% speed buff from the Protoss Temple makes up for it really quick. As soon as I get those Photon Cannons up, my main goal is getting a Mothership, Orbiters and some teched Carriers.

I imagine going either way is fine, but the Photon Cannon stratagy has been working well for me so far.

P.S. Do you ever use Dark Templers? So far I've found them to ultimately be a waste of resources in multi-player games.

Wiezzen:It doesn't really put you behind that much. Idealy, the 450 minerals you put into the Photon Cannons will hardly put you behind. I see how a stratagy like this could be a blow to Terran or Zerg, but the 20 second 50% speed buff from the Protoss Temple makes up for it really quick. As soon as I get those Photon Cannons up, my main goal is getting a Mothership, Orbiters and some teched Carriers.

I imagine going either way is fine, but the Photon Cannon stratagy has been working well for me so far.

P.S. Do you ever use Dark Templers? So far I've found them to ultimately be a waste of resources in multi-player games.

Sometimes. I haven't since they nerfed the Warp Gate research time though.

It was hit or miss, based on if they built detectors quick enough, but when it worked, it was a game ender. Warp Prism + 3 Warp Gates = DTs all over their workers. It likely won't work nearly as well anymore, but I have yet to try it since the nerf.

I have never used High Templars though, nor the t1 support from Gateways, I'm spacing on the name.

Honestly? Not really. Zerglings are TERRIBLE now. If you have a zergling vs. a worker unit the working unit will win hands down. Furthermore, zergs now have roaches - a unit in between lings and hydras. Roaches are broken, they can burrow and recover all health in seconds.

The current consensus seems to be that zerg is OP and I believe it. Just have a roach/hydralisk swarm and you're untouchable.

Lings still have their place. They're a great way to just burn excess larva/minerals, and a swarm of fully upgraded lings will absolutely annihilate anything in their path.

Honestly? Not really. Zerglings are TERRIBLE now. If you have a zergling vs. a worker unit the working unit will win hands down. Furthermore, zergs now have roaches - a unit in between lings and hydras. Roaches are broken, they can burrow and recover all health in seconds.

The current consensus seems to be that zerg is OP and I believe it. Just have a roach/hydralisk swarm and you're untouchable.

Lings still have their place. They're a great way to just burn excess larva/minerals, and a swarm of fully upgraded lings will absolutely annihilate anything in their path.

Well, yes they're respectable when fully upgraded but the almighty zerg rush seems to be a thing of the past. late game with a queen or two and a few hatcheries and you can produce a staggering number of lings in barely any time at all.

Anyways, if you do a 6 ling rush I feel the amount of minerals you would deter from your enemy is less than you yourself would lose from building the lings. Yet, they act as a good deterrant just to have in your base. Early people who probe/scv/drone scout will just turn ass and run when they see the lings if they're smart.

Anyways, these are just my observations, I'm not a Korean ultra star or anything, just your regular player type lol.

Eh... less of a 101 then this is how you learn starcraft 2 from someone that doesn't know how to play starcraft or starcraft 2. Terran is probably the most defensive race due to their frail yet high damaging units. So you need to get into a good position or you will get routed. And since everyone of their units can have their health restored in one way or another (repair/heal) they can recover faster from an attack more so then any other race.

The biggest thing you missed when talking about terrans is walling off. Since marines are the weakest starting unit (for equal minerals spent, they will lose to both zerglings and zealots). A wall is necessary to keep out the first few pressuring units (since both other races starting units are melee, they can't attack the marines blocked off). And since supply depots can lower them selves, they make the perfect wall and door to your base entrance. Unless you like the idea of zerglings or zealots raping your scvs in the first 2 mins of the game.

Yes. Yes you can. Cheese is not only exclusive to the zerg btw. Bunker rushing is now easier to do due to auto repair, scvs attack moving correctly, and bunker salvage makes it a much deadlier strat. And chrono boost makes pumping out zealots from proxy gates much much faster.

Kurt Horsting:Yes. Yes you can. Cheese is not only exclusive to the zerg btw. Bunker rushing is now easier to do due to auto repair, scvs attack moving correctly, and bunker salvage makes it a much deadlier strat. And chrono boost makes pumping out zealots from proxy gates much much faster.

If you manage to sneak a probe onto their base and they don't keep an eye out properly, you can cannon rush fairly damn well too. Really easy to counter, but a lot of people I've played against don't look for it.

Kurt Horsting:Yes. Yes you can. Cheese is not only exclusive to the zerg btw. Bunker rushing is now easier to do due to auto repair, scvs attack moving correctly, and bunker salvage makes it a much deadlier strat. And chrono boost makes pumping out zealots from proxy gates much much faster.

If you manage to sneak a probe onto their base and they don't keep an eye out properly, you can cannon rush fairly damn well too. Really easy to counter, but a lot of people I've played against don't look for it.

Ya, but if you have a brain in your head you should have one of your first fighting units or one of your workers following that probe to either kill it or chase it out of your base. Do this for two reasons. Reason one: Deny your opponent info on your build (rush, fast expand, tech, etc). Reason two: so shit like that wont start without you taking notice. Scouting is the anti-cheese.

Also Proxy gate is much more stable then cannon rush. Less minerals, easier to start harassing the economy (which is your priority in a rush build anyway), and easier to recover from if you fail. Also, if your terran, all you have to due is move your base to your natural, and then fast expand to your third or take a high yeild base, and you win the game for free. Since all his minerals are spent in static defenses, he can't stop you from expanding. And his base will be wide open for a counter since he can only attack a base which you have nothing in. Ya, it looks silly but it wins games.

Kurt Horsting:Eh... less of a 101 then this is how you learn starcraft 2 from someone that doesn't know how to play starcraft or starcraft 2. Terran is probably the most defensive race due to their frail yet high damaging units. So you need to get into a good position or you will get routed. And since everyone of their units can have their health restored in one way or another (repair/heal) they can recover faster from an attack more so then any other race.

The biggest thing you missed when talking about terrans is walling off. Since marines are the weakest starting unit (for equal minerals spent, they will lose to both zerglings and zealots). A wall is necessary to keep out the first few pressuring units (since both other races starting units are melee, they can't attack the marines blocked off). And since supply depots can lower them selves, they make the perfect wall and door to your base entrance. Unless you like the idea of zerglings or zealots raping your scvs in the first 2 mins of the game.

Yes. Yes you can. Cheese is not only exclusive to the zerg btw. Bunker rushing is now easier to do due to auto repair, scvs attack moving correctly, and bunker salvage makes it a much deadlier strat. And chrono boost makes pumping out zealots from proxy gates much much faster.

Hey Kurt,

I picked out things about the Terrans in StarCraft II that I found interesting, and while walling off your base with supply depots is effective, it's not particularly fun to watch. Thanks for the feedback, though!

Honestly? Not really. Zerglings are TERRIBLE now. If you have a zergling vs. a worker unit the working unit will win hands down. Furthermore, zergs now have roaches - a unit in between lings and hydras. Roaches are broken, they can burrow and recover all health in seconds.

The current consensus seems to be that zerg is OP and I believe it. Just have a roach/hydralisk swarm and you're untouchable.

Lings still have their place. They're a great way to just burn excess larva/minerals, and a swarm of fully upgraded lings will absolutely annihilate anything in their path.

Well, yes they're respectable when fully upgraded but the almighty zerg rush seems to be a thing of the past. late game with a queen or two and a few hatcheries and you can produce a staggering number of lings in barely any time at all.

Anyways, if you do a 6 ling rush I feel the amount of minerals you would deter from your enemy is less than you yourself would lose from building the lings. Yet, they act as a good deterrant just to have in your base. Early people who probe/scv/drone scout will just turn ass and run when they see the lings if they're smart.

Anyways, these are just my observations, I'm not a Korean ultra star or anything, just your regular player type lol.

You still need to micro your lings to do as much damage as possible (when one is taking too much damage have him run out so the unit being attacking it goes a different one), and don't forget to rally reinforcements to your opponents base.

And the weakness of 6-pool isn't loosing the lings. Its because your not making any drones which makes your economy really shitty. You need to at bring your opponent to less then 6 workers in order to break even. You MUST win in your first attack or you will lose the game.